Page 10 of Five Days

Well, honestly, I still did even though I pretended I didn’t.

While following after the hostess who said she would show me to Callum’s table, I recounted the good things in my life. I had a kickass job, the one I’d always dreamed of doing since I’d learned about romance, love, and lust. A faithful PA in the form of my best friend?—

Who danced with another man.

I stumbled to a stop alongside a flowering bush, blinking a few times in case my eyes betrayed me.

Callum didn’t date. Didn’t hook up. He’d told me he was gay like I was, but I’d teased him about being ace before assuring him that I would love him forever no matter how he identified. He always flushed—fucking always when I claimed that fact—making him look like a teenager rather than a thirty-three year old man who tended toward proper stoicism like no one else I knew, Father included.

And there he swayed, a dark-haired man holding him close.

“Sir?” The hostess returned to my side when she realized I’d stopped dead in my tracks.

I couldn’t tear my focus off Callum or find words to excuse my stunned behavior that had drawn me up short.

Callum and the man he danced with were of similar height, a few inches taller than my five-ten. And the wide shoulders on the dark-haired man with his back to me promised he could carry a burden. He took care of himself, that was for damned sure, his fitted T-shirt doing little to hide his thick traps and the muscles in his back.

And his ass.

My dick perked up at the shorts clinging to cheeks that suggested the man spent more spare time at the gym than Callum and I. His thick thighs and calf muscles stated the same.

Swallowing a flood of drool, I slid my gaze upward once more, noting how Callum stared at his…unexpected hookup?

I had never seen naked desire in Callum’s gaze before. Never experienced my best friend looking at someone like he wanted to throw them to the ground and fuck until he passed out.

“Sweet baby Jesus,” I whispered, needing to adjust myself from the porn playing out in front of my six-month celibate ass. Even though there was no actual fucking going on, Callum and that man together were a fantasy I couldn’t imagine cooking up regardless of my well-paid ability to do so.

Callum’s dance partner had the body of a god, the kind that used to tempt me toward trouble after the love of my life broke my heart. I’d rebelled against my stubborn feelings that had refused to relent, but at least now, I avoided situations that caused nothing but drama.

They shifted, angling enough I clearly made out the man’s profile in the flickering tiki torch’s light.

Recognition stole every thought in my brain, and my breath abandoned my lungs like I’d taken an uppercut to the solar plexus.

He had a prominent nose. Strong jawline darkened by scruff. Dark brows overshadowing deep set eyes I knew the color of even though I couldn’t make them out from the distance separating us.

Zackary Briggs.

I curled slightly in on myself, whimpering in ecstatic happiness at seeing him in the flesh, for the chance to talk to him, like I’d been desperate to do for too damned long. But a slew of questions jabbed like fists at my brain, stalling out my ability to make my dream come true.

What was he doing here?

Why was Callum dancing with him?

What the ever loving fuck alternate reality had my plane entered while flying over the Gulf?

There had to be a reasonable explanation, but I couldn’t for the life of me come up with anything that made sense.

Zack’s hand lay low on a back that wasn’t mine. His nose trailed over Callum’s ear as he whispered sweet nothings I wanted to swoon over. His thick thigh slid between my best friend’s legs when it should have been me trembling in Zack’s hold.

They moved together like liquid sex, arousal flushing though my entire body rather than the expected stab of jealousy. Zackary Briggs had always been irresistible, even as a teenager, so I didn’t blame Callum for being all up in his space.

As though feeling my stare, Callum glanced my way. He quickly stepped back from Zack as though he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and I could almost hear the hard swallow that bobbed his Adam’s apple.

Zack reached out to touch his arm but dropped his hand to his side as Callum shook his head.

I focused on Zack.

Finally—fucking finally—I had the opportunity of a lifetime. He’d denied me for too long, and I wouldn’t be set aside again. My feet moved on their own, rushing me toward the man I intended to have forever.

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